In the state of the art technology, a number of solutions for effecting electronic transactions are known. However, in most cases the way of accounting transactions depends on the chosen method or kind of transaction (e.g. payment card transactions, parking payment from a pre-paid account, etc.).
The most commonly applied solution is a payment card (magnetic or microprocessor). The most popular payment card systems are: Visa, MasterCard or American Express. A payment card is assigned to one specific payment account, thus the funds available on the card can derive only from one place. Owning a larger number of accounts at financial institutions compels a necessity to use other cards as well, which often is both uncomfortable for the user and not safe. The presented solution assumes a possibility to use a number of different payment accounts, identified through one identifier within a single payment system. This way, funds can be accessed from more than one payment account at the same time.
From the application WO0109851, methods of effecting payments with payment cards are known, where a mobile phone is used as a card authorization terminal, or the transaction is effected on the basis of information on the credit card provided by the user (DE10028028). From the description U.S. Pat. No. 6,282,522, the commonly applied solutions for payments with payment card via Internet are known. The methods used make it possible to only send information on the payment card to the respective authorization center, where the transaction accounting proceeds always in the same way and depends on the payment card's technology.
The prior art includes also electronic payment solutions with the use of pre-paid accounts or directly with bank accounts. The micropayment systems known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,999,919 can serve here as an example. However, their functionality and application areas are often limited, e.g. only to payments via Internet, or—as in the case of U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,075—to payments for telecommunication services, and transaction accounting as such is determined by the technology used.
From EP1136961, solutions are known which use phone for effecting electronic payments—especially wireless phone in a mobile telecommunication network. However, the solutions available do not provide a uniform method of effecting various types of payments and in most cases are complicated and not especially user-friendly. As in the case of FR2820232, these are often not very universal methods, allowing only for effecting a payment in a limited application area alone.
The aim of this invention is to create a universal and uniform system for accounting electronic transactions, which would possibly handle all kinds of transactions and various types of payment accounts, and which in particular would be adapted to the requirements and needs of today's market. Moreover, the invention aims to provide its user with full control of transactions effected as well as with comfortable and simple method of using, especially when effecting payments via phone.